UkPoliBlog: Composite feed : N Irish Blogs

Jim Nicholson: UUP, Tory or a bit of both? : Slugger O'Toole

An anonymous source suggests Slugger look more closely at the position of Jim Nicholson who despite the parting of the ways between the Conservatives and the UUP is still apparently taking the Tory whip in Brussels and Strasbourg [Are they still here? - Ed].

However, at home he has, from yesterday at least undergone a conversation from a Conservative and Unionist to a UUP MEP on his press statements. So Tom, Jim, are you guys still taking the Tory whip after all that's been said in recent weeks/months?

$cientology loses appeal against fraud ruling : Slugger O'Toole

The Irish Times reports from France, where the inheritors of L Ron Hubbard's greedy and manipulative anti-science cult of scientology have lost their appeal against a 2009 ruling that "two French branches of the US-based organisation were guilty of "organised fraud" and gave four of its leaders suspended jail sentences of up to two years." A Huffington Post report notes

During the appeals process, the prosecution had asked for the church to be fined at least euro1 million ($1.3 million) and its bookstore euro500,000. But the appeals court on Thursday instead ordered the same fines as the trial court, euro400,000 ($530,000) for the church and euro200,000 for its bookstore.

Five members of the church who were convicted in the first trial were ordered to pay fines ranging from euro10,000 to euro30,000. Four of them were also given suspended sentences between 18 months and two years.

In the original trial, prosecutors had tried to get the group disbanded in France, but the court declined even to take the lesser step of shutting down its operations, saying that French Scientologists would have continued their activities anyway.

[Other supernaturalists take note! - Ed] Well, it's been a tax-empt religion in the US since 1993... Blame the IRS...

As the Huffington Post report adds

Karin Pouw, a spokeswoman for the church in Los Angeles, denounced Thursday's decision, calling it a "miscarriage of justice."

She said the group would appeal the decision to the Court of Cassation and plans to bring a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights. Another complaint is pending with a U.N. special rapporteur.

If you haven't seen it before, I highly recommend this 1967 World in Action documentary with access to the inner sanctum of the cult that simply would not be allowed today... Video via XenuTV.

Is Crotty killing off any sane domestic consideration of Irish foreign policy? : Slugger O'Toole

Before the landmark Crotty vs the Taoiseach judgement in 1987, the Irish Constitution had amassed nine amendments in the previous fifty years of its existence. In the twenty five years since it has scored another seventeen. Some of those were responses to the massive social changes the country has undergone in those years.

Three originate from reversals of previously negative decisions over the very sorts of treaties Anthony Crotty originally hoped to stymie, and fourth though approved is still waiting to be acted upon. Every other European treaty has failed to fall at the hurdle. In other words, with regard to Foreign Policy in this reference to the people, the government always win.

I recently heard of a study of a number of otherwise similar Swiss cantons, which found a rate of happiness marginally higher in those where the relied more heavily on plebiscites than those which didn't. It doesn't mean that referenda make for a happier demos, but perhaps people are happier where their sense of wider agency is tangible than where they are largely ignored.

The question is what sort of agency do referenda offer? Paul Evans has previously warned of the dangers of simplification posed by the Referendum mechanism. It does make some sense at the constitutional level, as in the Scottish situation where there is anything up to three years to frame the problem and the more thoroughly explore what the options mean on a human scale:

Paul notes quite a long list of problems:

Time and time again, the public don't answer the question they've been asked. They use one question to send an unrelated message to an unpopular government.
Referendums privilege the weight of opinion (in numbers) over the weight of arguments.
By making policy questions explicit, as Cass Sunstein illustrates at length, youpolarise the arguments instead of promoting a rich debate and useful complex legislative responses.
People who don't have the capacity to engage in the debate on a given issue are effectively disenfranchised - especially when the referendum makes decisions that could be taken by elected representatives who would deliberate on everyone's behalf and defend their decisions at subsequent elections. The low-paid, people who work long hours, people with enough problems of their own, people who don't have the confidence to express their views or the opportunity to discuss them become unrepresented
In referendums, power is exercised without responsibility. No-one is under any pressure to obey The General Will or to ensure that a policy is actually in the long-term public interest.

That last is one of the bugbears of many in the constitutional reform lobby, though avoiding the calling referenda is by no means a guarantee that long term policies are intelligently set. A few years back Gavin Barrett wrote on the ongoing controversy that this habit of calling referenda on any piece of European legislation has become a habit than acting in accordance with precedent:

The responsibility for Ireland's unique record in holding referendums on European issues is usually attributed to the 1987 Supreme Court decision in Crotty v. An Taoiseach. The majority ruling in Crotty gave an extraordinarily broad (and, it must be said, extraordinarily unconvincing) interpretation of the description in Article 5 of the Constitution of Ireland as a 'sovereign' state. Although there is far more to Crotty than this, it was on the basis of this interpretation that the Court held ratification of the rather innocuous foreign policy provisions of the 1986 Single European Act unconstitutional, effectively forcing the then Government to hold a referendum before it could ratify it.

Crotty started a trend. Since Crotty, wary Irish Governments have unvaryingly made every major EU Treaty the subject of a constitutional amendment (and referendum), thus fireproofing each successive Treaty's ratification and incorporation against any constitutional challenge. However, notwithstanding the almost monotonous regularity with which Irish referendums on European Treaties have subsequently been held (with no less than six in the last 21 years), the supposed legal requirement to have a referendum post-Crotty is much less cut and dried than is sometimes thought. It is far from clear that the application of Crotty would invalidate the ratification even of the entirety of the Lisbon Treaty without a referendum. Current suggestions to ratify only part of the Lisbon Treaty without a referendum would be even less likely to fall foul of Constitutional censure. It is even unclear whether the present Supreme Court would even follow all of its own reasoning in Crotty (at least insofar as its finding concerning sovereignty is concerned).

Sovereignty is probably the most undercooked dish in the Irish polity. If there is a problem with this recent convention of submitting anything remotely sombre relating to the Irish state's relationship to the European to the will the of the people is fine. But what use is it if every time they are asked again they just change their mind?

In research, if you get confused and messy answers, the first place you look is to the question you asked. The major questions these techno referendums are nearly always obscured by reference to the inscrutable international treaty, very few people in the country actually understand. A battle of the white coated experts ensues.

So that every time someone shouts: "Ref-er-end-um!" the cynicism deepens. Something has to give.

The sooner society finds a way to confront the past the better... : Slugger O'Toole

Northern Ireland's DDP, Barra McGrory has made an interesting intervention. Gerry Moriarty in the Irish Times:

"I think there is an imperative in the public interest that society finds a mechanism to deal with the past," he said.

"Whether that be simply giving more resources to the investigators to get on with the investigating, and then consequentially the prosecution service to prosecute cases if the evidence emerges, or whether or not society is ready for a solution to the past outside of the prosecutorial system, is a matter that I think this society needs to confront," he said.

"In my view, the sooner it confronts it the better - but confront it, it needs to. I think at the moment there perhaps isn't a will to confront it in political circles because of the enormity of the decisions that have to be taken . . . But that is not for me, that is for politicians and for society."

The shadow of the past falls too readily on many individual life's even as our politicians are rightly focus on increasing the beneficial shadow of the future...

Where would a No vote for the ‘Fiscal Compact' leave Ireland? : Slugger O'Toole

Apparently, according to economist Jim Power in today's Irish Examiner, in a very odd place indeed:

It is intended that 12 out of the 17 eurozone member states would be sufficient to ratify the treaty. It appears this will be achieved easily enough. Consequently, unlike the case with the Lisbon Treaty, if Ireland were to reject it in a referendum, that would not be sufficient to prevent it from becoming enshrined in EU law. The big question then is where that would leave Ireland?

Presumably we could remain part of the euro area but would not have access to funding mechanisms and the like. Longer term, we couldn't remain part of the euro if we do not sign up to the rules governing it.

Unlike in previous referenda, the European political system would not lose too much sleep if Ireland were to hold a referendum on this issue and reject it. Ireland would be placed in a type of limbo situation.

Those who are pressing for a referendum, even it is not legally required, should ask themselves what they would do if such a referendum were to be rejected.

It would ultimately place a serious question mark over Ireland's continued participation in the single currency. If that is the choice of the people, fine, but they should be made aware of the possible consequences.

Quite so. His point is bolstered somewhat by another of today's op eds, this time in the Irish Times by lawyer Gavin Barrett (of whom more later):

The treaty's core consists of debt and deficit rules. However, its preamble provides that the treaty is not to be interpreted in any way as altering the economic policy conditions under which financial assistance is granted to a state (like Ireland) in a stabilisation programme.

Thus the treaty's deficit and debt requirements simply don't apply here for the duration of the present bailout (or any second one). Moreover the exemption under existing EU law from the application of debt-reduction provisions for three years after any such programme ends will evidently also continue.

Only after this transitional period will the fiscal treaty's debt-reduction requirements apply: article four requires an annual reduction of one-20th of the excess of national debt-to-GDP ratios exceeding 60 per cent. However, precisely the same obligation already applies under EU "six-pack" regulations - adopted by EU leaders with little protest last November. The treaty's debt rules thus involve nothing new.

He continues:

We have just seen that after Ireland's stabilisation programme exit, existing EU "six-pack" debt rules will require an annual reduction of one-20th of the excess in Ireland's debt-to-GDP ratio. In other words, Ireland will be required to run structural surpluses rather than deficits for many years. The treaty's ban on structural deficits of over 0.5 per cent will thus involve no extra burden, because under existing law, we will not legally be entitled to run deficits anyway.[Emphasis added]

It's been taken as read by some parts of the Dublin establishment that there must be a referendum, and that the AG has no choice in the matter. Ireland has never had monetary sovereignty in any real degree. The crunch point is whether this treaty actually interferes with fiscal sovereignty (an important matter for countries much larger than Ireland).

Barrett believes that the nature of the preamble puts an important break on any sanctions that might be applied, is the deal maker on this matter, which he claims:

...provides that the treaty is not to be interpreted in any way as altering the economic policy conditions under which financial assistance is granted to a state (like Ireland) in a stabilisation programme.

So it's another promise to be good, not an enforceable treaty. Whether or not that applies the necessary oil to get Irish wheels under it, the country, short of seceding from the Euro, is going to be stuck with the conditions it sets and if not willingly opted-in, may, as Power notes, eventually find the heat is too much to bear.

Which I suspect is part of Frau Bundeskanzlerin's cunning plan to weed out the fit from the unfit and sustain the Euro as a credible currency on the world markets.

Advocate General to take up case for NI students going to Scots Universities? : Slugger O'Toole

Interesting snippet from across the water regarding the £9k fees students from Northern Ireland now have to pay if they want to follow what's become for many a traditional route to graduation at Glasgow, Edinburgh, or St Andrews. Dundee even runs a fairly successful degree course in Northern Irish law.

The Rutherglen Reformer reports a spat in the House of Lords:

Peers from all sides angrily hit out at the "unfairness" of allowing Scottish students to study for free at universities north of the border, while those from the rest of the UK had to pay up to £9,000 a year.

Advocate General for Scotland Lord Wallace of Tankerness agreed to take up the issue with his ministerial colleagues, but he also warned that to challenge the Scottish Parliament's policy risks undermining the principles of devolution.

Cross-party unrest over the imposition of tuition fees north of the border emerged during committee stage debate on the Scotland Bill, which hands further powers to the Scottish Parliament.

Goldman Sachs is an international criminal conspiracy. : ORGANIZED RAGE

Cartoons of week. : ORGANIZED RAGE

February 4th has been named as International Day of Solidarity with Leonard Peltier. : ORGANIZED RAGE

Leonard Peltier is a Native American serving his thirty-sixth year in prison. The events that led to arrest and the falsification of evidence used to convict him have long been highlighted by award-winning films like Michael Apted's 'Incident at Oglala' and best-selling books such as Peter Matthiessen's 'In the Spirit of Crazy Horse'.

Leonard was wrongfully accused in 1975 in connection with the fatal shooting of two FBI agents. Government documents show that without any evidence at all the FBI decided from the beginning of its investigation to ''lock Peltier into the case'. U.S. prosecutors knowingly presented false statements to a Canadian court to extradite Leonard to the U.S.

The statements were signed by a woman who was forced by FBI agents to say she was an eyewitness. The government has long since admitted that the woman was not present during the shootings.

Meanwhile, in a separate trial in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Leonard's co-defendants were acquitted by reason of self defense. Had Leonard been tried with his co-defendants he also would have been acquitted. Unhappy with the outcome of the Cedar Rapids trial, prosecutors set the stage for Leonard's conviction. His trial was moved to an area known for its anti-Indian sentimentâFargo, North Dakota. The trial judge had a reputation for ruling against Indians, and a juror is known to have made racist comments during Leonard's trial. FBI documents prove that the U.S. government went so far as to manufacture the so-called murder weapon, the most critical evidence in the prosecution's case. A ballistics test proved, however, that the gun and shell casings entered into evidence didn't match. The FBI hid this fact from the jury.

Leonard was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life terms. According to court records, the United States Attorney who prosecuted the case has twice admitted that no one even knows who fired the fatal shots.

Leonard Peltier is sixty-seven years old and in poor health. An accomplished author and artist, he is renowned for his humanitarian achievements. In 2009, Leonard was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the sixth consecutive year.

Although the courts have acknowledged evidence of government misconduct - including forcing witnesses to lie and hiding ballistics evidence reflecting his innocence - Leonard has been denied a new trial on a legal technicality.

Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, fifty-five members of Congress and others - including a judge who sat as a member of the court in two of Leonard's appeals - have all called for his immediate release.

The Courts may not be able to act but Barack Obama, as President, can.
Please join with us to free an innocent man. On February 4, 2012, tell Obama to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier. Leonard is an example of how a person can be imprisoned but not broken. His struggle is compared to Nelson Mandela's and his message is also one of hope. His prison writings are full of love and belief that his people are stronger than the miserable conditions they experience on the reservation or the poverty many of them find in cities. Despite his ailing health and diminishing eyesight, Leonard is still an inspirational leader to Native Americans generally and his own Lakota people particularly.

February 4th is a Worldwide Day of Solidarity for Leonard Peltier. Please link your name to others calling for an immediate pardon for Leonard so he can live out his days peacefully with his people.

Jean Ann Day, of the Ho-Chunk Nation, moved to Oglala in 1975 to support and protect the traditional people who had requested help from the American Indian Movement. She witnessed the shoot-out aftermath on Pine Ridge, and survived the reign of terror. She is a National spokesperson for the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee.

Jean is the Executive Director of the Ho-Chunk Nation's Social Services. Their goals and objectives is characteristic of the Ho-Chunk Nation's inherent cultural traditions, customs and values. She also addresses the well-being protection and self reliance of the Ho-Chunk children, families, communities and the Ho-Chunk Nation.
Leonard Peltier web site.

John O'Dowd: the education debate is "continuing in a better atmosphere" but it's not yet time for all-party talks : Slugger O'Toole

I grabbed a very quick interview with Education Minister John O'Dowd as he headed down the corridor in Ashfield Boys School to go home after last night's East Belfast Speaks Out community hustings.

In the past few months he's announced reductions in school budgets, given a partial reprieve after finding extra money for his department, and most recently announced a shake up of SEN/statementing. I asked whether this was all not a lot for school principals to have to deal with? As well as explaining the sequencing, John O'Dowd expressed his hope that further money would be secured for education "in the latter years of this Executive".

Asking @JohnODowdSF about education & unblocking the transfer debate (mp3)

The transfer conundrum hasn't gone away. Stalemate is the default position. So what could happen that would free the logjam? In his answer, John O'Dowd suggested that the debate was slowly changing.

... the voice of the non-selective sector is beginning to be heard ... schools that do not practice academic selection are providing first rate education and they want to be recognised and identified and acknowledged for that, and they're out there making their point heard ... we await the report of the Catholic Commission in terms of the future shape of post-primary education in the Catholic sector.

He said "the debate continues, it's continuing in a better atmosphere".

So is it time for all-party talks on education? During the previous Assembly, all parties except Sinn Fein met to talk about education. John O'Dowd characterised those meetings as being about "how you keep academic selection" rather than "putting all the issues on the table".

I'm not sure political talks at this stage would be beneficial ... I think there has to be a wider community debate, a wider debate about all the issues around education ... let that take place, and then allow the politicians to catch up.

East Belfast Speaks Out – a community hustings that was in the hands of the people : Slugger O'Toole

East Belfast Speaks Out was back for a third time last night. Having eliminated the warm up act, this year it was straight into questions after a brief introduction from chairperson Mark Devenport.

The panel consisted of Alliance MLA Chris Lyttle, DUP MLA Sammy Douglas, Sinn Fein Education Minister John O'Dowd, UUP MLA Michael Copeland, PUP councillor John Kyle. (For the third year in a row, Owen Paterson didn't turn up at the event. For the first time, the reason may have been that he wasn't invited.)

Women were under-represented on the panel - though Chris Lyttle was a late substitute for Judith Cochrane who was originally meant to be representing Alliance. However, the audience was very mixed, and my recollection is that a shade more than half the questions came from women in the packed school assembly hall.

Avoiding the pitfall of allowing each panellist to comment on each question, panel were steered through an enormous number of questions.

What's been done to help young males in East Belfast? Educational underachievement in (Protestant) males. Educational maintenance allowance. Why is doing 4 or 5 exams in a strange school better than sitting 2 in a familiar place? Supergrass trials. Increasing number of unemployed graduates. Bill of rights. Cutting school budgets and the SEN review. Integrated education rather than sectarianism. NI Housing Executive complaints. Belfast City Airport. Supergrass trials again, brought up this time by a representative from FAST. Difficulty a family faced getting suitable rented accommodation when their child was ill and had to use a wheelchair. Corporation tax. Young people leaving NI to study elsewhere. Mental health issues.

Drama came in the form of an intervention from Occupy Belfast. Reading from several pages of notes, the man asked about Iris Robinson and a sum of £5,000 before going on to decry politicians over the course of the next few minutes. John O'Dowd's challenges to him proved too much and the gentleman left the hall of his own accord. The protester's performance unfortunately did little to bring credit to the Occupy movement, nor to highlight any of the group's issues in a manner that would encourage members of the audience to explore them.

You can listen to the audio of the ninety minute community hustings in four parts. [There is a dip in sound at one point during the question from FAST to avoid contempt of court.]

Jenny Muir has an excellent summary of the evening's event on her blog - East Belfast Diary.

Kudos to James Smyth and his team for pulling together the event and handing over control to those who attended.

East Belfast Speaks Out (part 1) (mp3)

East Belfast Speaks Out (part 2) (mp3)

East Belfast Speaks Out (part 3) (mp3)

East Belfast Speaks Out (part 4) (mp3)

Six Nations – wide open. : Slugger O'Toole

This weekend sees the start of the most unpredictable Six Nations for a while. (There's still time to make your predictions here).
Are those Polish freezers still working for Wales? (BBC)
Keith Earls has some pretty big boots to fill....(Belfast Telegraph)
If you were Mr Lancaster would you like to start things anew at a freezing hostile Murrayfield.....?

From the Record Andy Robinson is pressing the right buttons. Of England's World Cup:

What surprises me about England is they fell into a downward spiral while winning. It wasn't results that undermined them but the other stuff. They self-destructed.

Italy? – Joe.ie previews here. Targeting the Scots probably...

France, as always, find new stars...meet Wesley Fofana (You Tube)....hmmm!

It's a defining first weekend - from the Herald:

France meet Italy seeking revenge for the biggest shock in tournament history; Scotland take on England in the oldest international fixture in the world; and Ireland welcome Wales for a rematch of the best match at last year's World Cup.
Just a routine start to the RBS 6 Nations Championship, then.

This could be fun.

A call for mentoring support @SOEtrust Together conference #SOEconf12 : Slugger O'Toole

In a work capacity, I was invited to attend the Spirit of Enniskillen's annual Together schools conference at the Wellington Park Hotel, which brought together over 100 Year 13 pupils from 20 schools across Northern Ireland, to explore and discuss 6th Form leadership for the Sharing in Education programme that is supported by the International Fund for Ireland.

I arrived for the afternoon workshops, and we were introduced to a video highlighting the overall work of the Spirit of Enniskillen, who were the winners of the Guardian Charity Awards 2011.

The first workshop was among practitioners. In our group, former SoE Director, Chuck Richardson, expressed his fear that the Northern Ireland Executive may support shared education programmes for economic reasons (i.e. the inevitable need to reduce stock of school buildings), but not include programmes that will prepare pupils for the mixed contact that will bring. Robin Wilson added that this risks what has developed in parts of Scotland, where pupils end up segregating themselves within the shared space.

The second workshop was with a group of about a dozen Together participants; I was the only non-participant. They asked themselves a series of questions about leadership among young people, how it could be developed. Some of them didn't see themselves as leaders, yet, but I said that I thought they were being a little hard on themselves — the fact that each of them care enough to want to change something they don't see as right in their community and that they've put themselves through this course was evidence that they were already leaders.

But it became apparent to me that these young leaders aren't necessarily getting enough mentoring support. They all had praise for the facilitation during the course, and acknowledged those in their school environments, but felt they weren't yet given due respect in the wider community. Indeed, one participant remarked that she came up against a gatekeeping scenario, where the young leaders weren't given true ownership of a particular external programme.

My concern is that without leadership developed beynod these programmes, through mentoring, each tranche of SoE participants become pioneers but ultimately frustrated. An important factor for some consideration.

It was great to hear feedback from the participants themselves, in an informal plenary session:

http://mrulster.podomatic.com/player/web/2012-02-02T09_31_13-08_00

Some points made were:

Together programme is useful because it brings people together to do things together, which otherwise isn't going to happen
Talking about contentious issues doesn't change your identity, but it does improve understanding of another's perspective
It builds confidence in speaking with those that you do not know
Participants serve as advocates for this work in their own schools
The importance of mixing with others at a younger age, "because we all live in the same place"
Discussions with others can be hard at first, but easier as you get to know them
The positive role that facilitators play

Department of Education Minister, Liam O'Dowd MLA, was a guest speaker and he made positive remarks:

http://mrulster.podomatic.com/player/web/2012-02-02T09_32_56-08_00

The Minister said that building a new society requires leadership, and that the Good Friday Agreement was created to serve as a device to build a new society, with leadership at all levels. He said more than once not to let the politicians get away with all the leadership roles.

And that leadership can be lonely, and when they feel this way, to remember why they joined this SoE programme, why they set out on this journey — to make change.

Ms Mary Southwell, International Fund for Ireland board member, also made some brief remarks, describing all the programme's participants as role models for society: "There is no doubt that our future is in really good hands."

It was up to Maeve Grimley (SoE School Support Worker and acting emcee, and as the Minister would have her, a future journalist!) to conclude the conference. She said that she hoped the participants enjoyed the programme's opportunities to meet others and discuss important issues. And fittingly, she evoked the memory of SoE founder, Gordon Wilson, whom she described as someone who wanted to enable ordinary people to do extradorinary things with good leadership.

Odyssey Marine to recover Victory, but lose ‘Black Swan' treasure : Slugger O'Toole

Last seen somewhere off the Irish coast, US company Odyssey Marine Exploration have announced that they have "executed an agreement with the Maritime Heritage Foundation for the financing, archaeological survey and excavation, conservation and exhibit of HMS Victory (1744) and artifacts from the shipwreck site."

That's Admiral Balchin's HMS Victory - a 100-gun first-rate ship of the line lost in 1744 in the English Channel.

It confirms an earlier report in the Sunday Times. There may be four tonnes of gold and silver coins in the vicinity of the wreck...

Odyssey Marine found the wreck site back in 2008 and, in cooperation with the UK Ministry of Defence, recovered a 42 pounder and 12 pounder bronze cannon – after a little legal flurry Odyssey and the UK Government came to an arrangement.

Although there has been no sign, so far, of the Victory ‘bonanza', the agreement covers the potential recovery of "any private property including coins". From the Odyssey Marine press release

The agreement calls for Odyssey's project costs to be reimbursed and for Odyssey to be paid a percentage of the recovered artifacts' fair value. The preferred option is for Odyssey to be compensated in cash. However, if the Foundation determines, based on the principles adopted for its own collection management and curation policy, that it is in its best interest to de-accession certain artifacts, the Foundation may choose to compensate Odyssey with artifacts in lieu of cash.

Odyssey will receive the equivalent of 80% of the fair value of artifacts which were primarily used in trade or commerce or were private property and bear no direct connection to the construction, navigation, defense or crew of the ship, such as coins or other cargo.

Odyssey will receive the equivalent of 50% of the fair value of all other objects typically associated with the construction, crewing and sailing of ships including, but not limited to, the ship's hull, fittings, fasteners, construction elements, clothing, organic remains, foodstuffs, cooking utensils, pottery, weapons, ammunition, ground tackle and navigational equipment.

For any private property including coins or other cargo administered through the Receiver of Wreck, the Foundation has agreed that Odyssey shall receive 80% of the value.

Meanwhile, the Guardian reports an update on the long-running saga of the treasure of the ‘Black Swan', aka the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, a Spanish vessel that perished in 1804. I mentioned it in detail in this post from September last year.

From the Guardian report

It is one of the greatest underwater treasure troves of all time, a glittering haul of gold and silver recovered from a mysterious sunken Spanish galleon and secretly flown across the Atlantic to the US.

But now an epic battle over ownership of 594,000 gold and silver coins scattered on the ocean floor has ended with victory for the Spanish government, with the American treasure-hunter Odyssey Marine Exploration ordered to send the valuable haul back home.

A jubilant Spanish government announced on Wednesday that the $500m-worth (£308m) of gold and silver coins found at a site that Odyssey called "Black Swan" would be back on Spanish soil within 10 days.

"This sentence gives Spaniards back what was already theirs," said the culture minister, José Ignacio Wert. "There is a space of 10 days in which the coins must be returned."

The court decision puts an end to nearly five years of intrigue on the high seas since Odyssey scooped the precious haul from the Atlantic seabed in May 2007. To the fury of Spanish authorities it secretly landed the trove in Gibraltar and flew it out in chartered aircraft to its base in Florida.

Odyssey Marine haven't noted that ruling on their website yet. But a spokeswoman for the company is quoted in the Guardian report

A spokeswoman for Odyssey, Laura Barton, indicated an appeal might be forthcoming. "Currently, there is no final order from the court to give the Black Swan coins to Spain," she told the Guardian without giving further details.

"It is certainly reasonable to assume that should the cargo recovered by Odyssey be transferred to Spain, it will never be returned," the exploration company had argued before the appeals court.

What's in Belfast City Council's draft investment programme? : Slugger O'Toole

Belfast City Council launched their 2012-2015 Draft Investment Programme (PDF) this morning. The 44-page colour brochure is packed with optimism, bullet points and potential. But away from the headline £233m figure and the photocall with Peter Robinson, Martin McGuinness, Niall Ó Donnghaile and Deirdre Hargey, what's the real story?

It should be recognised as a plan with cross-party and cross-institution agreement. All the parties represented in the City Hall have put their name to the plans. It's a coordinated effort with OFMDFM, DSD, DFP (small business rate relief) and other departments. And yet, it's not a plan full of mirrored investments: notably, there's no Falls Road plaza to match the Shankhill Road piazza. While it's been dubbed Belfast's "Marshall Plan", it should be noted that the US version started in 1948. The Belfast plan has taken a lot longer to agree since the "end of the war". You can see the result of the cross-party negotiations in the small pockets of money set aside for a myriad of minor activities, £300k here, £700k there.

Not all the money is new. And not all the money is guaranteed and in place. It's a basket of new and existing initiatives, plans, and funding requests. While no one would want investment to be delayed until the Review of Public Administration concludes and council boundaries are changed, it should be noted that these plans are all within the existing BCC wards, and will need to be reviewed post-RPA.

£75m capital investment in council facilities. New "third generation hybrid pitches" and "state-of-the-art changing facilities" are promised along with playgrounds and refurbishment of local facilities. [Ed - a zero-value prize for the first person to explain what can be state of the art about a changing room?] And another £75m capital (partnership and European money) split across large and small city regeneration projects, as well as economic infrastructure and sectoral development.

A £20m extension to the Waterfront Hall will provide exhibition and conference space. (They could build a glass walkway/bridge across to the nearly-complete building opposite the Waterfront for a lot less than £20m!) Improving the Waterfront's conferencing offer is at the expense of other smaller commercial venues. Will the council invest public money to help a public facility become more popular at the expense of competing commercial facilities, or will bringing bigger conferences to Belfast boost the smaller venues too?

£300k bursary fund to help 16-24 year olds move into further education, training and employment.

Belfast City Council employs over 2,500 people. The draft investment programme will target the creation of 400 work placements, internships and apprenticeship opportunities within Belfast City Council (focussed on graduates, young long-term unemployed and disabled people).

Belfast City Council spends £170m locally. There's a commitment in the draft programme to buy local - targeting a rise from10% to 60% of local council spend with local suppliers by 2015. (No indication of what qualifies as 'local'). Suppliers will also be delighted to hear that the council are committing to pay 90% of their creditors within 28 days to improve business cash flow, something they should have been doing before now.

On top of any capital investment, there's £34m to grow tourism/major events, arts and culture, and targeted sectoral business growth. Working with Invest NI, 400 "local companies" will be helped "explore export opportunities for the first time or grow into new markets", and 60 community organisation will "explore the potential of becoming social economy enterprises".

Belfast Enterprise Academy (and competitions) will introduce 150 undergraduate students to the practicalities of managing a business, with a target of creating 80 new business start-ups. A positive move, but a drop in the ocean.

£29m overall investment for people, communities and neighbourhood. Includes £2.4m for advice/support centres. Playgrounds (ten in total) and community gardens get £2m along with £4m to tart up Dunville and Woodvale Parks (with matched funding from DSD). £3m for community safety, including £700k for further alleygating.

Councillors voted through a below inflation 2.6% rates increase last night. (Small business rate relief should offset much of this rise for local traders.) This additional money is ringfenced for capital initiatives in the investment programme. The parties have agreed to keep future rates increases at or below the level of inflation. Social and community benefit clauses will be introduces to contracts.

Reading through the brochure, North Belfast seems to be the weakest area. A bid of £8m to develop an green business park on the North Foreshore. Improving the recreation/community facilities on the Loughside. And a £9m EU PEACE III funding proposal for a community hub at Girdwood. A partnership proposal to regenerate St Kevin's Hall and develop a cultural corridor linking the city centre to north Belfast. OFMDFM and DSD want to reopen Crumin Road Gaol as a tourism and business centre. Little of this is committed funding yet.

There are just four paragraphs devoted to "positive relations and shared space" mentioning just £4m of EU PEACE III funding. The creation of an interfaces regeneration strategy that amongst other things will include "sensitively [work] towards reducing barriers" may not deliver much change on the ground.

While there is a commitment to monitoring and review, there is no indication of any provisional payback period or targets for how the city's ratepayers will recoup their investment.

In all, the draft investment programme is underpinned by a strategy to raise and spend additional public money in a bid to boost confidence in Belfast and encourage private investment, inward investment from businesses in GB, Ireland and beyond, and lift tourist income.

Attendees I spoke to at this morning's launch were pretty positive about the Council's plans. They welcomed the forward thinking, and felt that the investment was credible and would benefit the city.

Belfast City Council are consulting on their draft investment programme. Deadline for responses is Friday 27 April 2012.

(Photo by Belfast City Council.)

Northern Ireland's never had it so good? : Slugger O'Toole

Leo Tolstoy began his novel Anna Karenina with the memorable assertion that "happy families are all alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Last night even the Belfast City Council was a fount of brotherly love. In the Bel Tel, Lindy McDowell has been counting the ways in which Northern Ireland's been getting happier:

...cynicism may be missing the public mood. Because for once the public mood seems to be one confident step ahead of the eternal realists.

There aren't many people here, for example, who didn't get that wee jolt of shared pride at the accomplishments of our hat-trick of golfing heroes last year. Ditto the MTV awards. All of that made us look good.

This year we've got the Titanic centenary – finally we're making something of our connection with that legend. And MTV will be back for that too – an endorsement in itself.

Then there's the Irish Open. And now the All-Ireland Fleadh which we are assured will rake in somewhere in the region of £40m for the local economy.

So are we getting less and less like our old unhappy selves with every passing year?

UUP: Confused boxer without a decent right or left? : Slugger O'Toole

There isn't really an upside to the UUP's problems at the moment. Although they were never what you might even remotely call political friends, Mr McNarry's exit bears a lot of resemblance to the early departure of Trevor Ringland. Already the consequences are closing in.

So early in his career as leader to have lost allies or potential allies from both the right and the left, is a little more than careless. His problem is – not dissimilar to the SDLP – is whilst that his party is more open, gregarious and sociable, they are not really fit for the new political game.

Elliot is leader partly because he is all those things. His constituency association almost along can cheerfully outgun almost any other in the party. HIs instinct, as an innately small ‘c' conservative is to swing to the right. But there is no political space for his party in particular to exploit out there.

And any credentials he might have won on the left (by going to a GAA match for instance) have now been collected in magisterial style by the First Minister. The best analogy I've heard (pre Tom) is that the UUP is like a boxer who genuinely doesn't know which fist to lead with.

Bank of America Stole My House! Worth watching as it is a clear example of how these economic terrorists do business, they destroy lives. : ORGANIZED RAGE

Jackie Ramos first video on you tube which helped expose Bank of American as economic terrorists who ruin peoples lives can be watched here.

Obituary: Emmanuel Cooper; Potter, socialist, writer, editor, critic, biographer, teacher, broadcaster, curator and campaigner for gay rights. : ORGANIZED RAGE

Emmanuel Cooper, who has died of cancer aged 73, was a leading potter, who also became widely known as a writer, editor, critic, biographer, teacher, broadcaster, curator and campaigner for gay rights. His wide cultural and artistic interests and activities were pursued with a relentless energy and great entrepreneurial skill which made him a powerful advocate for the crafts and visual arts.

Pottery was Emmanuel's first and enduring passion. In the 1960s he quickly established a reputation not only as a craftsman in his own right, but also as an effective mover and shaker in the ceramics world. He trained with two leading potters, Gwyn Hanssen Pigott and Bryan Newman. He set up his own pottery in 1965, in Westbourne Grove, westLondon, and had his first solo exhibition in 1968. He established the Fonthill Pottery in Finsbury Park in 1973, and moved it to Primrose Hill in 1976, where it remained. A shop front provided an interface between the private dedication of the studio and the need to sell the pots to a wider public - like his father, a village butcher, he was a small-businessman at heart - and it became a familiar local feature, a profusion of elegant pots in vivid multicolour glazes side by side with tools of the trade and Emmanuel's motorbike.

His early work was tableware and utility was a key aspect of his philosophy. "I see myself as making objects that relate both directly and indirectly to function," he said in a late interview, and although deeply rooted in the traditions of his craft, he came to see his jugs as forms rather than purely functional objects. Emmanuel became increasingly interested in more abstract work, producing conical forms he said were inspired by dramatic new buildings, such as the Gherkin in the City of London. He was technically highly proficient, and became best known for his heavy glazings, at their simplest reminiscent of the work of Lucie Rie, but at their most extravagant bursting into bright, vivacious colours that evoke the postmodern enthusiasms of a later generation of potters. His book on glazes, first published in 1978, which went through many editions and titles, was the best-selling of some 28 he wrote.

His work is represented in a number of national and international collections, including those of the V&A, the National Museum of Scotland and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

However, Emmanuel was too restless, ambitious and enterprising to remain content with the quiet life of a full-time potter, however much he relished the physical creativity. He was soon involved in what became the Craft Potters Association, and served for many years as a council member, chair, and eventually a fellow. His most critical initiative was the founding, with Eileen Lewenstein, of Ceramic Review in 1970. He was co-editor and publisher with Lewenstein until 1997, and sole editor thereafter until a couple of years before his death. He helped build this up from what was essentially a CPA newsletter into a wide-ranging ceramics journal, with an international reputation. It also became profitable, helping to subsidise the CPA shop.

His many books on pottery, from A Handbook of Pottery (1970) and A History of Pottery (1972) to Ten Thousand Years of Pottery (2000) provided a vast and ever-growing store of information, in many frequently revised, updated and expanded editions. He published a number of short studies of fellow potters, and wrote two major biographies of key influences on his own work, Bernard Leach: Life & Work (2003) and Lucie Rie: Modernist Potter, which will be published later this year. He seemed to have his hands in all the clay of the ceramics world.

In the early 1970s, Emmanuel got involved in the gay movement, helping to found the Gay Left Collective, which published an influential journal of sexual politics. After it dissolved he set up a gay artists group and a gay history group, and contributed widely to the gay press, increasingly on the arts and cultural issues.

From the early 1980s, he began researching and writing on gay art, producing several widely read studies - The Sexual Perspective (1986), on homosexuality and art; and Fully Expose

Book review: Dammed Scroungers! by Dr Felix McHugh. : ORGANIZED RAGE

In recent years, a perception has sprung up suggesting that those forced to claim benefits to survive, regardless of whether they may be living with a disability that prevents them working or are unable to obtain one of the few jobs available nowadays, must be no good lazy 'scroungers'. I recall, whilst a junior doctor, hearing the somewhat unpleasant conversations of a couple of my colleagues who never had much else to discuss at lunch apart from whine about the lazy, 'live off the state' characters they had encountered. Though I worked in the same trust, I cannot say that I ever had the pleasure of meeting any such mythical 'scroungers'.

A book which goes far to smash the narrow-mindedness that seems to be infecting our society, across the board, has recently been published by welfare rights worker and unashamed formed benefits claimant Felix McHugh.

Mr McHugh explains in his book, 'Damned Scroungers', that the public are becoming increasingly negatively predisposed towards those down on their luck as a consequence of the torrents of venom unleashed by daily newspapers such as the Mail, the Express and the tabloid Sun. He reveals that during the 1980s when unemployment was high, those out of work were viewed with genuine sympathy and few then dared level the charge of 'scrounger'.

McHugh begins his book with a series of sensationalist and absurd headlines that have featured in newspapers that are sadly read by millions in Britain. He points out that 'â¦there is more rubbish spoken and printed on the subject of welfare benefits in Britain than on any other subject, with the possible exception of immigration from Eastern Europe and Asia.'

He proceeds, without too much difficulty, to analyse these headline claims of 'lazy' benefit cheats and immigrants getting vast amounts of freebies from a 'generous' state. With the ground work being laid down, McHugh discusses cases of people he has represented at appeals to show the difficulties and delays that mar the process of obtaining benefits; a far cry from the attention grabbing headlines and sound-bites of Tory politicians damning claimants. He gives examples of less than satisfactory fitness for work reports, compiled by assessors from ATOS Healthcare, and cites stories of the unfriendliness of tribunal panel members he has crossed swords with in the past at appeals.

I took special note when the author mentioned a study carried out by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which found that an individual requires an income of at least Â£14400 a year to have a 'decent standard of living'. McHugh points out that this equates to Â£276.92 a week; far more than most individuals on benefits receive. The title of the book is not entirely a parody of prejudice. McHugh does name and shame those who have 'scrounged' vast sums of money from the public purse - enter Messers Fred Goodwin, Phillip Green and friends. He muses on why one rarely sees these 'damned scroungers' being lambasted and hounded in the lesser quality newspapers, though the fraud of these few far exceeds that of the petty cash 'swindled' by the odd individual on benefits.

One of the chapters I found particularly useful was the one called 'A brief overview of UK benefits 2011/12'. Whereas many newspapers cite the number of people claiming various benefits and grumble over the total cost, few explain concisely the various benefits available or the eligibility criteria. McHugh explains this clearly so that readers can have a better grasp of how the benefits system works and a greater awareness of the paltry sums available. As he sensibly points out, who in their right mind, being fit for work and having the opportunity, would seriously choose to sit at home all day with a double digit weekly allowance and the company of Jeremy Kyle.

A fine book that not only shines a much need spotlight on the lives of millions struggling to obtain and survive on their meagre benefits in a climate of public hostility, the welfare support workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to see that justice is obtained for the vulnerable and the unsupported, and a system that seems set to become even less generous in future.

Readers of this book will find themselves properly armed with the right facts and figures to challenge any tabloid reading bigot they may have the misfortune of encountering.

By Tomasz Pierscionek

Miliband's on the hunt – but he desperately lacks a clarion call : Slugger O'Toole

In today's New Statesman, David Miliband has released a new essay on building Britain a social democratic future. It's disappointing.

Miliband's focus on Labour's electoral strategy neglects a more urgent and, for progressives, a more difficult question: What's the point of the progressive project anymore?

Against the backdrop of mass bankruptcies and near-bankruptiies – and, consequently, the bankruptcy of supply side economic policies – could there be an easier, more ripe time for progressive parties to articulate the dangers of unregulated finance and, more importantly, an agenda for remedying the follies wreaked by the unchecked financial sector? Yet, instead of piercing analysis and a compelling vision, Milliband rifles his only almost-zinger towards the not even low-hanging so much as long since plucked, Mr. Roy Hattersley.

"But in his article, liberty, rights, social justice and equality are listed as a range of desirable values, when the issue is how to resolve clashes between values, not whether you can make a list of them."

A passable criticism - if you're on the high school debate team. Less so if you're attempting to re-imagine and inspire the realignment of middle and working Britain's political passions.

Having set his bar so low, I politely await the underwhelming all-too-easy grand finale he's obviously teed-up. Instead, New New Labour serves up this:

"...we are enjoined ... to put power as well as wealth and opportunity in the hands of the many, not the few."

Got that? And that abstract nothing-speak was one of his more impassioned sentences.

At a time when, as Miliband concedes himself, Europe has 24 out of 27 left-leaning parties out of power despite the FT running a Capitalism in Crisis series while one populist GOP presidential candidate is attacking his Republican colleague as a "Vulture Capitalist", the question, while it still retains some relevance, must be: Progressives: Is this all?

Where's the progressive critique for the new century? Is there none?

P183: Russian graffiti artist draws Banksy comparison : Drive-by Planet

A Russian graffiti artist P183 aka "Bankski" to some, has been doing what is being described as Banksy-like murals around Moscow. Such comparisons though shouldn't be taken too far. He could as easily be linked with Blek le Rat as an influence - in the end it's about P183 and his brave venture in sometimes tough terrain. The Banksy comparison has helped give him some profile.

There is little out there about the man himself. According to reports 183's a 28-year old dude named Pavel. Other sources claim he's an active member of the Russian LiveJournal community.

P183's street art - raw eye-catching stuff - has drawn the Banksy comparisons for obvious reasons. In and around Moscow his mural-style graffiti turns up on median dividers, walls, even on bridges. He has also undertaken some fairly ambitious mixed media installations.

P183 and Banksy have their own distinctive styles. Wit and message are neatly combined in Banksy's work. His best stuff can make you smile without detracting from the power of the statement. The intent is rarely lost in translation. P183's work also sends a strong message. There is a visceral, dramatic quality to some of it. It will be interesting to see where he takes it.

Check out the video beneath with more of P183's work to accompanying beats.

For larger versions of the murals try this Guardian gallery.

McNarry: "the party will close ranks and anybody who wants to be a hypocrite will get their photograph taken" : Slugger O'Toole

It's the story that keeps on giving. And that looks to be David McNarry's intention.

Now free of having to notify the UUP press office about media interviews and statements – something that Tom Elliott has adhered to as Party Leader – David McNarry is everywhere. This morning's News Letter. The Belfast Telegraph. Though nothing fully authored by him in the Irish News. [Ed: Maybe he's saving that as a treat for Thursday?]

In recent days he has appeared on UTV Live, Stormont Today, and this morning gave a remarkable thirty minute interview to the Nolan Show. He opened with the statement:

McNarry: I haven't really wanted to be making the headlines. I'm not really concerned about me when you put it into perspective, Stephen, from what I hear on your programme about sick babies, about the economy, and dissidents and job losses and vulnerable families. They're all more important to me.

McNarry then went on to discuss at length the talk, his involvement and his impression of the UUP leader, suggesting that Tom Elliott dithers.

He said that "other senior figures" agree with him that "[Tom Elliott] has a problem" with how he was dealing with the DUP/UUP cooperation talks (before McNarry gave the interview and resigned).

Nolan: Are you suggesting that there are senior members of the Ulster Unionist Party who agree with your assessment of Tom Elliott?

McNarry: Yes.

Nolan: Are there many?

McNarry: Yes

Nolan: Would they be in the majority?

McNarry: In terms of senior members? Yes.

Nolan: So you're suggesting this morning that Tom Elliott does not have the support and confidence of the majority of the senior members of the Ulster Unionist Party?

McNarry: Not to the same extent as I have. People react in different ways. It's quite possible that the Ulster Unionist Party will organise a photocall today or Monday and they'll have all MLAs and senior people around Tom and they'll be smiling. That's all it would be, a photo.

With bridges well and truly ablaze, it would be amazing if McNarry could ever take back the UUP whip.

Nolan: Could you see yourself joining the DUP?

McNarry: No. [later] I don't jump ship. My heart is in the Ulster Unionist Party.

Also writing in this morning's News Letter, DUP MP (and UUP escapee) Jeffrey Donaldson remarked that "the plight now facing David McNarry is one with which I am very familiar". Yet even if McNarry softened on jumping ship, would the DUP be able to control David McNarry's fury? Numbers-wise, McNarry's exit from the UUP assembly group helps Sinn Fein (in terms of extra committee positions) more than it impacts the DUP.

More likely that a career as an independent unionist beckons, sitting beside David McClarty and Jim Allister in front of Alliance in the Assembly chamber.

Stephen Nolan asked what would happen next?

McNarry: I think what will happen = and it will happen because this is what parties do – there'll be more disinformation and bad mouthing circulated, briefed about me David McNarry and the party will close ranks and anybody who wants to be a hypocrite will get their photograph taken. But it is quite amazing what people say to me in private and then say in public.

At times, it feels like more of a human interest story than a political one. It's very one sided at the moment. Over the weekend, there were those within the party who viewed McNarry's resignation as "one of the best things to happen to the UUP", expressing "[relief] that he's finally done it, as he's threatened too enough". The bad mouthing in public has yet to begin.

In the meantime, David McNarry is eeking out Tom Elliott's punishment. What started of as "panto" is becoming more damaging.

By only revealing a few details at a time about the UUP/DUP talks, and by being so available to the media, he is singlehandedly keeping the story in the news agenda. Think what it would be like if McNarry could use twitter!

Only time can tell whether McNarry can claim his leader's scalp – but to me that seems to be his intention.

: 1169 And Counting.....

'THERE WILL BE ANOTHER DAY'.
By Peadar O'Donnell ; first published in January 1963.

Shortly before he died , Colonel Maurice Moore asked my wife to promise him that she would keep at me until I wrote an account of the land annuity agitation in which he and I - and for that matter, she - played active roles. She took her promise seriously - "One dare not fail so good a man" , she said , and put me under geasa not to fail him.

I promised her , and told myself, I would chase along country roads for a few weeks and gather the story , life-living, from the lips of those who lived it. Every now and then I made a false start, and wrote bits of notes in this townland and that , which I proposed to fit into a framework of time later , by checking them against the files of 'An Phoblacht'. I had no sense of urgency about the work until Phil McCauley , secretary to the most important of all the committees, died suddenly.

Looking around me then , I was startled at how many of those from whom I was to gather the story had died , and with some regret for my delay I set about writing, at least enough of an outline to meet the obligation laid on me.......
(MORE LATER).

THE PETER BERRY PAPERS....... The Top Secret Memoirs of Ireland's Most Powerful Civil Servant : Dirty Tricks, Election '69/ Spying on a Unionist Politician/ Keeping the (State) Taoiseach informed/ The Garda Fallon Murder/ Advice to Jack Lynch- 'Fire the pair of them...'/ Vivion De Valera's advice to O'Malley/ Rumours of a Coup D'Etat/ The Internment Plot, November 1970/ Secret Meeting with William Craig.
From 'MAGILL' magazine , June 1980.

" When reading in 'The Irish Times' an account of the dismissal of the two Ministers I came across references to Mr. O Morain which seemed to me to misrepresent his attitude and, at lunch time , I went to see him in Mount Carmel Hospital . I showed the offending statement to him and offered to draft a correction which I would bring to the notice of the Taoiseach before a Fianna Fail Parliamentary Party meeting which was scheduled for 6.00 pm : I felt that a misrepresentation of Mr. O Morain's attitude would not be helpful to the Taoiseach and I had always understood from Mr. O Morain's manner and speech that he held the Taoiseach in the highest respect. Mr. O Morain declined."

MAY 7 , 1970 :
" The President appointed Mr Des O Malley , on the nomination of the Taoiseach , to be Minister for Justice. Earlier , I had said to the Taoiseach that I had had a dreadful time since 1965 as principal adviser to the Minister , under the Minister and Secretary's Act , and he said that he was well aware that I had been working under difficulties : " - " I will give you a good one this time."

" Although Mr. O Malley took office formally as Minister for Justice on this date he moved in on 6th May , the day that he was nominated in the Dail. He made an immediate impact as full of energy , boyishness and humour. Before this he had been Parliamentary Secretary to the Taoiseach since the General Election in 1969 so that he was a comparative newcomer to the political scene with no experience in administration of a public Department. I enquired and was told by his office staff that '...he was one of the best but shockingly impulsive and would need to be advised to think again.......' " .
(MORE LATER).

BLOODY SUNDAY , DERRY : 40TH ANNIVERSARY , SUNDAY 29TH JANUARY 2012 , IN PICS....

"I went with Anger at my heel
Through Bogside of the bitter zeal
- Jesus pity! - on a day
Of cold and drizzle and decay.
A month had passed. Yet there remained
A murder smell that stung and stained.
On flats and alleys-over all-
It hung; on battered roof and wall,
On wreck and rubbish scattered thick,
On sullen steps and pitted brick.
And when I came where thirteen died
It shrivelled up my heart. I sighed...."
(By Thomas Kinsella , from here.)

More pics from the 40th Anniversary of 'Bloody Sunday' in Derry can be viewed here.

FINE GAEL HYPOCRISY - JUST THE SAME AS ANY OTHER LEINSTER HOUSE-PARTY HYPOCRISY....

"(It is) morally unjust and unfair to tax a persons home and by so doing grind him into the ground. It reminds me of a vampire tax, in that it drives a stake through the heart of home ownership, through enthusiasm and initiative, and sucks the the life blood of the people who want to own their own home and better their position....(Fine Gael)...will be opposing it by every means possible...."

- Enda Kenny , Fine Gael , when he was the leader of the then main 'Opposition' party in Leinster House (from here) .

"However, given the large majority of the Government we know it can railroad through any legislation. If residential property tax, or family home tax as I prefer to call it, is amalgamated with service charges it will crucify hundreds of thousands of people and develop into a super-tax which will be fought tooth and nail. The odium which the poll tax in Britain, under the redoubtable Mrs. Thatcher, caused a number of years ago will pale into insignificance when our electorate deal with this Government's outrageous intention to introduce such a tax....."

- anti-home-tax hero Enda Kenny , again - and again , he was in supposed 'Opposition' to the then Leinster House Fianna Fail-led 'government'. And it worked , as expected : enough politically-stupid voters took the man at his word and voted for him and his Fine Gael party last February to put them in power resulting in this u-turn , amongst others.

"I'm in this race because I care about Americans. I'm not concerned about the very poor." : Slugger O'Toole

McGuinness wants to support Northern Irish football team? : Slugger O'Toole

Erm, don't tell Squinter [aye, like he didn't know already - ed], but Martin McGuinness is contemplating a reciprocation the First Minister's visit to watch the McKenna Cup final last weekend...

Martin McGuinness has revealed he would cheer on the Northern Ireland football team and hopes to get the chance on a visit to Windsor Park.

With many nationalists hostile to the international team, viewing its home stadium in south Belfast as a cold house for Catholics, the remarks from the Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister potentially represent another landmark in improving cross-community relations.

Romney up, GOP down, populism ailing? : Slugger O'Toole

There's a good discussion to be had about the tensions between populism and parliamentary politics. If there is a side lesson to taken from the ups and downs of the Republican party, it's probably buried in here somewhere. As Mike from PoliticalBetting notes, the famous victory of Mitt Romney in Florida (one of the big ‘swing' states) came at a drop in turn out:

In Iowa the number of self-identifying Republicans was down by 11%, in New Hampshire 15% the reduction was 15% while in Florida overnight it was 16%.

Only Newt Gingrich managed to pull them out in South Carolina... Lack of agency (expectations of which have grown exponentially on either side of Congress since the onset of the net)... Or maybe they just don't think any of the candidates on offer have what it would take to knock Obama out of the Whitehouse?

"This is a read-back into the so-called ‘dirty war'..." : Slugger O'Toole

In yesterday's Belfast Telegraph, Brian Rowan attempted to explained the thinking behind Sinn Féin's expressed concerns about the "Dark Side" [It's "a sound working partnership and one that is to be commended" - Ed] Indeed. From the Belfast Telegraph article

...this is not a row for the sake of being awkward. It is a serious attempt to engage Matt Baggott sooner rather than later.

I think it would be fair to say that a degree of briefing was involved in the writing of the article.

Which, if we are to take those concerns at face value, as the timely front-page story of today's Irish News would suggest – the gist is in the BBC newspaper review and it relates to a previous intervention by the NI deputy First Minister in an ongoing police investigation – makes this section of the Belfast Telegraph article of particular interest.

The dissident threat means a continuing intelligence need. But explanation is required when suspected agents are seen at play in republican communities.

At play in terms of articulating the thinking and strategy of armed dissidents, including those behind the killing of Constable Ronan Kerr. And at play pulling the strings in riotous confrontations with the PSNI. [added emphasis]

This is a read-back into the so-called ‘dirty war'.

[Well, it worked the last time! - Ed] That was before the dissidents, erm, dissented...

Look out for the (un?) intended consequences : Slugger O'Toole

Daniel Hannan, Daily Telegraph blogger, staunch Eurosceptic MEP and romantic unionist warms to his theme.

Like most British people, I love Ireland. It's a separate country, but it's not really foreign. The Irish talk as we talk, dress as we dress, eat as we eat (and, tragically, drink as we drink). We watch the same television programmes, follow the same football teams, shop at the same chains. We share that half-humorous, half-cynical mode of conversation that sets us apart even from other Anglosphere nations.In fact, Britain and Ireland are joined by pretty much everything except politics: history and geography, habit and outlook, commerce and settlement, blood and speech.

But mightn't this same welcome trend make it easier to bring about a united Ireland one day? And isn't his euroscepticism stretched too far? Such an acute observer of political behaviour should also concede that however penetrating the complaints about bureaucratic strangleholds and affronts to national democracy, the great EU project is carrying on, bloodied but unbowed, towards some as yet unknown destination, with all of us on board.

More on Apple's abysmal factory conditions in China. : ORGANIZED RAGE

Protest against Apple's abysmal factory conditions in China

President Barack Obama blew a kiss to Apple in last night's State of the Union speech, praising the entrepreneurial spirit of its founder, the late Steve Jobs, as the cameras panned to his widow in the audience.

Obama's timing couldn't be weirder. In the last month, Apple has released a damning audit that found almost 100 of its supplier factories force more than half their workers to exceed a 60-hour week. The company announced responsibility for aluminum dust explosions in Chinese supplier factories that killed four workers and injured 77. Hundreds more in China have been injured cleaning iPad screens with a chemical that causes nerve damage.

Apple was just subjected to a "This American Life" radio special reporting on its abysmal factory conditions in China. Last weekend a front-page New York Times story asked why the company offshored all of its manufacturing, mostly to China. (The answer is found in what its executives call "flexibility." Tens of thousands of workers there live in factory dorms on-site, where, the Times reports, they are woken in the middle of the night and forced onto 12-hour shifts when Apple decides a product needs tweaking.)

In the face of all this bad press, the tech darling's response has been to reveal its supplier factories and to announce a partnership with the Fair Labor Association to do stepped-up factory inspections. The FLA is the partly corporate-funded group that until now only monitored apparel factories, and which Nike helped establish after its own scandals in the '90s.

In sum, Apple is now doing what Nike has been doing for nearly 15 years: the apology-plus-transparency formula, straight out of the manuals offered by "reputation management" consultants.

This was certainly enough for most mainstream media and even some activists. Some more dubious observers said the actions came about because of "consumer pressure," claiming the company acted to quell the displeasure of the legions of iPhone worshippers.

It must be said that Apple looked more serious this week than it did several years ago, when it shrugged off 18 worker suicides at its main supplier, Foxconn, in China. Steve Jobs told the press that the high number of suicides was about average for the Chinese population as a whole. Just last week, Terry Gou, CEO of Foxconn, referred to his workers as "animals" during an appearance at the Taipei City Zooânot a lot of empathy there, either.

Change the Image, Not the Actual

When anti-sweatshop campaigners in the '90s relentlessly called Nike out for its miserable, toxic factories around the world, sneaker-buying Americans did have an impact on Nike.

U.S. sales fell for four successive years, despite billion-dollar marketing outlays every year. So CEO Phil Knight rented the National Press Club and told reporters his shoes were "synonymous with slave wages, forced overtime, and arbitrary abuse." He vowed to put things right.

Since then, Nike has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on factory "monitoring" and hired on a "corporate social responsibility" staff of over 200. Nike became a charter member of the FLA in 1999, and has a representative on its board.

What has it wrought? Very little. Richard Locke, a highly regarded business professor and long-time observer of Nike, has been granted extraordinary access by the shoe giant. "A decade's-worth of high-profile efforts to change sweatshop conditions in overseas apparel factories hasn't worked," Locke concludes.

Why hasn't it? He who pays the piper calls the tune. All these new workers' rights experts work for the corporations they're monitoringâeither directly, as on Nike's social responsibility staff, or in NGO mode. NGOs sell their monitoring services to the big brands that are seeking cover while their supplier factories continue the same profitable patterns of worker abuse.

The most recent example where this kind of voluntary monitoring has proved ineffective comes from Indonesia. An Indonesian union won in court a $950,000 settlement this month for 4,500 workers at a factory that supplied Nike. They were forced to work seven days a week without overtime payâat a big factory supposedly under FLA monitoring for a decade.

This is not to say that these high-profile monitoring operations are worthless. Just ask the shareholders who saw Nike bounce back from being equated with slavery to join the top rankings of "responsible" companies. "Corporate social responsibility" has proved invaluable at repairing brand images and wrong-footing the anti-sweatshop movementâmaybe what Bill Clinton had in mind when launching the Apparel Industry Partnership, precursor to the FLA.

In fact, one could argue that the FLA has made the situation worse. It has been monitoring and certifying "compliance" for Nike and other apparel giants for more than a decade, apologizing for the corporations as they continue to squeeze suppliers, crush worker organizing, and cheat workers out of severance pay when their factories flee to lower-cost havens.

FLA CEO Auret van Heerden has excused Nike and its other corporate "partners" for the below-subsistence prices paid to sweatshop contractors, saying "simply blaming buyers and the prices they pay is too simple."

Meanwhile sportswear companies unabashedly gloat over the power they have to dictate prices paid to supplier factories.

Whilst the Irish people starved in the great famine, Queen Victory donated a miserly Â£2,000, and refused to allow the Turkish Sultan AbdÃ¼lmecid to donate Â£10,000. : ORGANIZED RAGE

A scenic port town on the east coast of Ireland, Drogheda is the last place you would expect to find a vestige of the Ottoman Empire. Yet an understated plaque hanging on the frontage of the town's bustling Westcourt Hotel tells a very different story.

Unveiled in 1995 by Drogheda Mayor Alderman Godfrey and the then Turkish Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, Taner Baytok, the plaque, which reads simply "The Great Irish Famine of 1847 -- In remembrance and recognition of the generosity of the People of Turkey towards the People of Ireland," commemorates a surprising act of generosity on behalf of an Ottoman sultan at a period in time when it is likely that the only turkey on the Irish agenda was that of the edible variety. Or indeed perhaps not even that, considering there was a famine going on at the time.

A devastating wave of hunger, which saw approximately 1 million people starve to death and 1 million more flee in search of a better life elsewhere, the great Irish Famine resulted in the island's population dropping by what is estimated to be as much as 25 percent between 1845 and 1852.

Yet in 1847, at a time when the Irish found themselves largely forsaken by the rest of the world, not least their rich neighbors across the water, the Ottoman ruler of the time, Sultan AbdÃ¼lmecid, who caught wind of the disaster from his Irish doctor, decided to send not only monetary aid to the far off island but also three ships carrying provisions and food supplies.

Legend has it that the sultan had pledged the considerable sum of 10,000 pounds to the cause, but the ruling monarch of the time, Queen Victoria, laid down the law, requesting that he send only a 10th of this because she herself had only donated 2,000 pounds. Abdullah Aymaz noted in an article in The Fountain magazine in 2007 that despite the fact that the British administration did not give permission for the three ships to enter the ports of Belfast or Dublin, the vessels managed to secretly discharge their load in the tranquil town of Drogheda, approximately 70 miles north of Dublin.

An act of kindness which remained largely unknown for many years, the episode entered the wider public consciousness when Irish President Mary McAleese sang the praises of Sultan AbdÃ¼lmecid on a state visit to Turkey in March 2010, relating how, "at the insistence of the people, the star and crescent of Turkey forms part of the town's coat of arms."

Indeed, to this day a silver star and crescent maintain their place at the top of the Drogheda coat of arms and the official badge of Drogheda United Football Club is simply a red crescent and a star -- the lasting legacy of a historic act of kindness. A letter signed by the Anglo-Irish gentry of the time, now on display at the European Commission office on Dawson Street in Dublin, expresses gratitude to the sultan of the Ottoman Empire for the donation. Sunday's Zaman reported in 2010 that the then Turkish foreign minister, Abdullah GÃ¼l, stated in 2004 that copies of documents confirming the donation had been sent to the National Library of Ireland and the Drogheda Municipality.

Amongst those intrigued by the story of 19th-century international comradeship following McAleese's comments in 2010 was Turkish filmmaker Ãmer SarÄ±kaya, who this week announced plans to make a movie, titled "Famine," based on the tale.

"It's a little-known but inspiring story," SarÄ±kaya told Sunday's Zaman this week. "I would say 99 percent of the people in Ireland and Turkey know nothing about this episode, which is something we hope to change," he said, adding that since he has expressed his plans to make the movie he has received numerous emails and letters from people in Ireland expressing shame that they did not know of the episode before.

SarÄ±kaya, who is traveling to Ireland in three weeks time to audition Irish actors for the project, said that 60 percent of the film will be shot in Ireland, while the remainder will be filmed in Ä°stanbul. With filming expected to begin in July, SarÄ±kaya has his eye on Irish director Neil Jordan to steer the story to the big screen, although this appointment has yet, he says, to be confirmed.

A story of love, jealousy, betrayal, hope and honor, "Famine" will tell the story of an Irish girl, Mary, whose life changes when she meets Fatih, a young Turkish man sent over by the sultan with the aid relief for sufferers of the famine. The two decide to marry and Mary plans to return with Fatih to Turkey. The only problem is that Mary is trapped in an unhappy engagement to James, a fiery Brit who is prepared to do anything to stand in the way of her plans to escape.

"The film will represent the good, the bad and the ugly," SarÄ±kaya told Sunday's Zaman, adding, "The good are the Irish, the bad are the English and the ugly is the famine."

Yet the Turkish filmmaker is keen to attest that the focus of the film is not on the Irish-English divide but on the unlikely union between Turkey and Ireland, two countries separated by 4,000 miles. "The characters may be fictional but the film is based on the true story of Turkey lending a charitable hand to Ireland during their hour of need," he said.

Ireland and Turkey are certainly not the most potent of international allies. However, despite the fact that Sultan AbdÃ¼lmecid's random act of kindness was little spoken of for many years, it forged a small bond between the two nations which lives on to this day.

In 2007 Turkish journalist Aymaz delivered an account of an interesting memory of Yahya Kemal BeyatlÄ±, a former Turkish ambassador who participated in the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. According to BeyatlÄ±, whilst each of the representatives from the Allied powers voted in unison against Turkey, the delegate from Ireland was an exception, raising his hand in favor of Turkey for each vote. When questioned why he had acted so, the representative said: "When we suffered from famine and disease, your Ottoman ancestors shipped loads of food and monetary donations. We have never forgotten the friendly hand extended to us in our difficult times. Your nation deserves to be supported on every occasion."

In an age where humanitarian aid has become an ordinary phenomenon, it may be easy to understate the goodwill of such an action. But for those starving citizens who greeted the Ottoman ships in Drogheda in 1847, Sultan AbdÃ¼lmecid's gesture would have been seen for what it truly was: an unprecedented and progressive act of humanity.

This Building is Now Occupied : ORGANIZED RAGE

A short film on the ongoing occupation of the former Bank of Ireland, Royal Avenue, Belfast.
by the Creative Workers Cooperative